Taxi Fare
by DecemberLee
Summary: AU Haru is living in Tokyo, training hard to become a professional swimmer. One rainy day he hops into a taxi, without realizing there was someone already in it. Lil' one-shot.


Of course Haru liked the water, but not on an afternoon when he was coming home with heavy bags filled with groceries, especially when he was already really tired from swimming practice. Plus it was cold. Back in his home town, this sort of thing wouldn't have bothered him, but here in Tokyo, his apartment was quite a ways away. If he walked, by the time he got there, the food would be no good.

He exhaled out of his nose and looked up at the sky from under the roof of the supermarket. _Why_ didn't he bring an umbrella? He shook his head and walked out from the dry shelter. He'd need to hail a taxi. How troublesome.

On the busy street, he saw a taxi just sitting there. Without thinking, he opened the door and tossed the bags next to him.

"Please drive to -" he began when he realized he wasn't only the driver in the car. A young man was sitting next to him, surprised with the food suddenly thrown onto his lap. How did he not noticed the back seat wasn't empty, and why wasn't the taxi moving in the first place? Then he realized the traffic lights were on red.

"Sorry," he mumbled, reaching for the bags.

"It's fine," the man grinned and placed them on the seat in between them. "I don't mind sharing a taxi."

"I can just find another one," Haru stated bluntly, though he was too tired and would prefer not to use more energy getting out of the car.

"I really don't mind," the man persisted. "Where are you going?" Haru told him. "Ah, that's a lot closer to here than where I'm going. You can go first."

"Well, OK." Haru repeated his apartment address to the driver and the traffic lights turned green, signaling for them to go.

There wasn't any awkward silence, as the young man (who had red hair, bright red eyes, and sharp teeth) next to him kept on talking.

"By the way, my name is Matsuoka Rin. Nice to meet you." That name sounded really familiar.

"Nanase Haruka," Haru replied shortly, but not so uncomfortable now that he realized Matsuoka Rin also had a girly name.

"Nanase…" Matsuoka-san muttered, then a light bulb went on. "Ah! I've heard of you. Your name is one I've heard a lot." Then Haru remembered. The man sitting next to him was a swimmer, like him.

"Yes, I've heard of you, too," Haru said. Matsuoka-san smiled.

"So you just got back from food shopping, huh?" he asked, noticing what was in the bags. "And now you're going home?"

"Yes," Haru answered, again, bluntly. Even though he was talking to a fellow athlete, he wasn't in the mood to talk at all. He'd had a headache all day, and what he wanted to do at that moment was to go home and rest.

"I'm actually in Tokyo visiting a friend," Matsuoka-san reported, even though Haru hadn't asked him. What was with this guy and talking? He didn't need to. Couldn't he take a hint? "I heard you were swimming in this city."

"Yes."

"What's with the short answers?" Matsuoka-san laughed. Haru mentally clicked his tongue. He was caught. This is guy was kind of irritating. Haru cleared his throat.

"Do you swim around here?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"That's more like it!" Matsuoka-san exclaimed. Boy, he was sure loud. And so the conversation went on. Haru would be asked a question, and then he would answer. Sometimes Haru would ask a question, and that would make Matsuoka-san happy.

By the time they got to Haru's apartment, the rain stopped. The taxi drove onto the parking lot and stopped in front of the building.

"I'll help you with your food," Matsuoka-san said suddenly.

"You sure?" Haru asked. "I thought you were visiting a friend."

"He can wait," the other young man said with a grin. Grabbing half the amount of bags, he got out of the taxi. Haru grabbed the rest of them and stepped out when he remembered -

"Ah, money-" he reached into his pocket for his wallet.

"Got it," Matsuoka-san said, beating him and paying the driver. Haru stared at him. He invites him to stay in the taxi, helps with groceries, _and_ pays for the taxi fare? Sure they'd heard of each other before, but they didn't _really_ know each other.

The taxi drove away and Matsuoka-san noticed Haru looking at him. "Something wrong?" he asked.

"It's nothing," Haru shook his head, and added, "My apartment is this way." And he led him to the stairs, walking across the wet gravel. After climbing to the fifth floor, they stopped outside Haru's door and the shorter boy fished out his keys. He opened the door and Matsuoka-san handed him the groceries he was holding. "Thanks," Haru accepted them.

"Sure," Matsuoka-san grinned again, showing his shark-like teeth. He must do that a lot.

"So I guess I'll see you around soon," Haru continued.

"I'm not sure so soon," Matsuoka-san said. "I'm going back to Australia tomorrow, but right now I'm just visiting. But perhaps the next time I return to Japan, I'll pay you a visit."

"A visit?"

"Yes, as in: I'm challenging you to a race," he explained, grin growing wider.

"Sure, but I only swim free, Matsuoka-san," Haru agreed. He'd heard this guy was very fast in both butterfly and freestyle. What would it be like to race him?

"Don't worry, I already know that. Ah, and you can just call me Rin," the taller boy corrected him. "If you call me Matsuoka-san the next time we meet, it will feel too formal."

"OK."

"And I don't want to call you Nanase-san. How about Haruka?"

"No," Haru grunted. Rin laughed. "Just Nanase."

"If you are calling me by my first name, then I get to you call you by yours. Does Haru work?"

"Whatever," Haru agreed. Rin laughed again. This guy was already breaking the wall of formality between them.

"Well, I better get going," Rin looked down at his watch. "The next time we see each other, we'll have a race."

"Bye… Rin," Haru said. The grin came back. Strange, they had known each other for about twenty minutes, and the grin was beginning to feel familiar. Rin already seemed like a friend.

"See you, Haru," Rin waved and walked back toward the stairs. Haru went inside his apartment, set the groceries on the table, and collapsed on the bed, ready for a nap before he made dinner for himself. He realized his headache had disappeared, though he didn't know how long it had been. Before he fell asleep, he smiled for the first time that day.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you so much for reading! These two are my favorite out of the entire show! :') This is my first time writing using Japanese titles (is that what they're called?) so I'm not 100% I used them correctly. If I made some mistakes, please let me know, and I will be sure to fix them! Thank you again!**


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